Twitter's New Design Updates: Bringing in a More "Facebookish" Experience

When speaking about microblogging and social media together, you of course have to be referring to Twitter. Over the years, Twitter has been able to act as a major platform for microblogging, while connecting people from all across the globe. It has also been a favorite among celebrities, who have been using Twitter to connect with their fans. However, the site’s available functionalities traditionally have always been limited, at least when compared to some of the other popular social media websites. It now appears that Twitter is eager to improve itself significantly to ensure that it is able to get a good share of the audience that these other major social media websites enjoy.

A Few Positives to Take from the Design Update

Twitter’s new design has a number of things in store for the user. This design, in fact, is going to make the user experience more streamlined. For instance, it is now going to be much easier to find earlier tweets made by the user. All that you need to do is click on the tab showing Tweets. You will also be able to pin your best tweets. Moreover, you can also find the Followers, Following, and the views that the profile experienced. The new design will also make photo sharing much easier for users. This, along with Twitter’s new rules, will allow users to tag a number of people in the photos, making it much easier to share. There is also the editorial calendar tool, which is further expected to streamline user experience. Long and short, these updates are expected to play a major role in helping Twitter evolve and move forward.

Ready for a ‘Facebookish’ Tweeting Experience?

Apart from improving and streamlining user experience, there are other items that might be a bit troubling for Twitter. Twitter seems to be extremely serious about overcoming its shortcomings when compared to other successful social media websites. The recent design of the site is a step forward towards achieving this. What is a little surprising is that Twitter has followed the current trends in its design. If you already have an active account on Facebook, Twitter’s new design will seem extremely familiar to you. It might be a little controversial to directly say that Twitter is copycatting Facebook, yet the similarity is undeniable. If you are planning to use the site once it rolls out the new designs, be ready to have a ‘Facebookish’ experience.

Twitter Following a Tried and Tested Path

Twitter is known for testing its new updates before it rolls them out on a larger scale. The primary objective, it seems, is to first understand user reactions. They are following a similar pattern with this new design launch as well. What remains to be seen is how current users react to this update, which makes the site similar to another social media giant. However, this step by Twitter appears to be a step to follow an already tried and tested path. The profile picture, the cover photo, and the pictures along the user’s timeline seem to be an almost perfect copy of the similar features from Facebook. And with Facebook, all of these have been extremely successful. So, it remains to be seen whether users will embrace these changes. And if they don’t, will Twitter go a bit further to create new designs with a touch of innovation.

Not Delivering Something More Innovative

It has no doubt been a courageous move by Twitter to shift completely out of the old design, which had become synonymous with the website brand. However, it seems that the site followed a path too obvious, one that brings in more traffic and does not involve any specific risk. This leads one to believe that it is not likely to be able to offer any extraordinary experience to people who have already been using Facebook for a long time. Hence, what was expected from this microblogging giant was something a bit more innovative and engaging, which could attract the attention of visitors to the website.

The Similarity is Obvious

Facebook is known to offer a number of applications, which had already become famous with some of the other social media websites. It has also introduced different techniques that were popular with Twitter as well. For example, the hashtags, which have become common in Twitter, were also introduced in Facebook to streamline public conversations. This time, it is the other way around. Twitter’s new design has the look and feel of Facebook: the cover photo, the profile picture, the timeline photos, and so on. Moreover, the Followers, Photos/Videos, Views, Favorites, and such other tabs have been placed just below the cover image in Twitter. These are sure to remind you of the tabs, such as Friends, Timeline, About, Photos, and others in Facebook.

Social Media becoming a Similar Platform throughout

The world of social media is a story of only a few platforms. With every passing day, each of them is trying to deliver a wide range of experiences to their target audience. In fact, many websites are trying to be a one-stop solution for the user in terms of their social media requirements. This is driving them to develop similar applications. Moreover, they are designing themselves in similar ways. Hence, the user experience from all of them is all too similar. It remains to be seen whether these similarities are going to have a negative impact and if it will reduce the time people engage with different social media websites.

Twitter will likely remain the major microblogging website into the future. If the design updates are accepted well by users, who knows where they might end up?